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Piers Morgan has opened up about receiving terrifying death threats, as he addressed Holly Willoughby’s exit from This Morning after 14 years.
The 42-year-old host, who has been presenting alongside the likes of Alison Hammond and Josie Gibson after Phillip Schofield’s exit earlier this year, announced her departure on Instagram with a statement on Tuesday.
‘I have let ITV know today that after 14 years, I will not be returning to This Morning,’ she began.
She added that it was ‘a difficult goodbye’ and that she was making the decision for her own and her family’s benefit, after an alleged kidnap plot.
Holly was pulled off of her This Morning hosting duties moments before it was set to air last Thursday, following a man being arrested and charged with soliciting to commit murder and incitement to commit kidnap of the ITV presenter.
Addressing the situation on Tuesday’s Uncensored, Piers said: ‘It’s clearly shaken her so badly, she’s walked away from one of the top jobs in television.’
Piers added that ‘especially with the Jill Dando documentary,’ which explores the murder of the Crimewatch presenter outside her home, ‘I really feel for her’.
Holly quit This Morning after 14 years (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Piers addressed her exit on Uncensored (Picture: TalkTV)
He went on: ‘This is because she has got young kids – she’s thinking, “My God, this is not worth it. I’ve got one of the best jobs in telly,” so what? There’s some lunatic out there.’
He continued: ‘Clearly it’s been enough already for Holly to give up this job.
‘I wish you all the very best – she’s a great girl, I’ve known her a long time, a lot of fun with her over the years, what you see is what you get.
‘She’s just a good laugh, a very talented broadcaster.’
The former Good Morning Britain host went on to say he hopes Holly will ‘bounce back’ but can understand if she’s ‘freaked out’.
‘She’s obviously just thought, “I’m done.”‘
Holly said she was making the decision for her family (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
Talking about his own experiences with receiving death threats, Piers went on: ‘Nothing happened when I reported them, and that still staggers me.
‘To get specific death threats made on my son’s Instagram, and reported it to the police, and they weren’t able to actually file charges. It’s quite breath-taking.’
Piers has previously spoken about how he and his son, then 28, received online threats, and claimed that the police should have done more.
Earlier this year, he said: ‘Almost 600 burglaries a day go unsolved, 77% of all cases are closed without a suspect ever being identified.
‘I had a death threat! Made on my eldest son’s Instagram in public. A specific death threat.
‘And after an 18-month investigation, nothing happened!’
Piers and his son Spencer received online threats (Picture: Spencer Morgan / Instagram)
‘It’s not good enough!’, Piers exclaimed.
The threats made against Piers and his family last year were investigated after Piers reportedly received messages saying he was ‘a marked man’ and it was a ‘promise’ that he would be ‘getting killed’.
His son Spencer is also said to have been sent messages telling him he would ‘get it’ if his father did not.
Speaking about the threats at the time, Piers told The Sun: ‘People think it’s perfectly ok to make death threats to public figures on social media but it’s not – there has to be a line drawn, especially when family members are targeted.’
‘That’s why I reported it and I am grateful to the Met Police and Greater Manchester Police for taking it so seriously,’ he added.
‘Cowardly threats have consequences,’ the divisive presenter said.
Piers Morgan Uncensored airs weekdays from 8pm on TalkTV. This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1.
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‘She’s obviously just thought, “I’m done.”‘